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A non-profit organization called “Feeding our Future (FOF)” was stopped in its tracks this week by the FBI after using millions of federal dollars meant for child nutrition to instead buy “numerous vehicles” and 14 properties, according to the Bureau. FBI Special Agent Travis Wilmer wrote in an affidavit this week: “The companies and their owners received tens of millions of dollars in federal funds for use in providing nutritious meals to underprivileged children and adults. Almost none of this money was used to feed children. Instead, the participants in the scheme misappropriated the money and used it to purchase...

What Sistani Wants He refuses a new air conditioner, yet his office is Internet-wired. He wants women to take political office, but not to shake the hands of men outside their families. He is easily the most powerful man in Iraq. Yet he's an Iranian By Rod Nordland and Babak Dehghanpisheh Newsweek Feb. 14 issue - It's interesting that most published accounts describe Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani as a tall, slender man, towering over his aides and visitors. Actually he's on the short side, about 5 feet 8, but the error is understandable. The housebound cleric has hardly set foot...

Saudi Officials Try To Shut Down Oregon Charity Group Owns Property In Ashland ASHLAND, Ore. -- The Saudi Arabian government is trying to shut down an Islamic charity with ties to Oregon and to terrorism. Al-Haramain runs a branch in Ashland and owns a house and acreage (pictured) in the Southern Oregon town. The FBI shut down the Ashland branch and seized evidence several months ago. The Oregon foundation is accused of laundering money from overseas and channeling it to terrorist groups. Al-Haramain still owns the Ashland property but cannot use it until the investigation is complete. The organization's president...

OTTAWA — The RCMP dismantled an alleged Ottawa terrorist cell with suspected links to al-Qaeda on Wednesday morning, making two arrests in the nation’s capital without incident. The men are suspected of preparing a terrorist attack targeting Canada. The ringleader allegedly attended training camps in the Pakistan and Afghanistan region. But the bomb plot was described as not well defined and the arrests were apparently made on Wednesday because one of the suspects was preparing to travel abroad. A news conference has been scheduled for Thursday afternoon. The RCMP, Ottawa Police Service and Canadian Security Intelligence Service were involved in...

MYFOXNY.COM - Fox 5 News reported Thursday that one of the financial backers of the Islamic mosque and cultural center project in Lower Manhattan once contributed to a terror group, although the investor says the contribution was made because he thought he was giving money to a harmless charity.

SNIPPET: "On Friday, Mubarak Hamed, the former director of the now defunct Islamic American Relief Agency-USA (IARA) based in Columbia, Missouri, pled guilty to three counts of a federal indictment charging that he illegally sent more than a million dollars to Iraq in violation of U.S. sanctions, conspiracy, and tax violations. Federal agents raided IARA's offices in 2004, seized its assets, and said it was part of a global network of similar Islamic charities that supported terrorist organizations. As part of his plea agreement, Hamed admitted the U.S.-based charity was part of this international network, with the IARA branch based...

http://globalmbreport.com THE GLOBAL MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD DAILY REPORT "EXCLUSIVE: Saudi Charity Designated As Terrorist Reopens Office In U.S." SNIPPET: "The International Islamic Relief Organization (IIRO), a Saudi charity whose Indonesian and Philippine offices have been designated by the US. Treasury in connection with the financing of Al Qaeda, has registered a new office in the United States. According to Florida State records, the IIRO (U.S.A.) Inc. was registered as a non-profit Florida corporation in Hialeah, Florida on April 28, 2009. After being required by regulators to provide a street address rather than a PO Box, the office address for IIRO USA...

United States Army Major Nidal Hasan told a radical cleric considered by authorities to be an al-Qaeda recruiter, "I can't wait to join you" in the afterlife, according to an American official with top secret access to 18 e-mails exchanged between Hasan and the cleric, Anwar al Awlaki, over a six month period between Dec. 2008 and June 2009.

SAN FRANCISCO -- After years of wrangling over legal procedures, the lawyer for a defunct Islamic charity laid out his case Wednesday that former President George W. Bush's secret wiretapping program was illegal - an argument that an Obama administration attorney refused to discuss. "May the president of the United States break the law in the name of national security? ... We're asking this court to say, 'no,' " Jon Eisenberg, lawyer for the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation, told a federal judge in San Francisco. Neither the president's constitutional powers as commander in chief nor Congress' authorization to use military force...

SNIPPET: "According to a report prepared by Pakistani police (the Crime Investigation Department), the AHF has funded approximately USD 15 million to Jihadi groups in Pakistan for carrying out terror attacks. These funds mostly went to the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) which is responsible for numerous suicide strikes in the last couple of years and also blamed for the assassination of Benezir Bhutto." SNIPPET: "Till 2004, the United States had designated at least thirteen AHF branch offices operating in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan, in many African countries and in the United States. But in 2008, the US Treasury Department has designated...

Treasury Department officials have yet to say whether they will appeal on Ohio judge's ruling that their 2006 asset freeze against an Islamic charity violated the group's due process rights. Treasury officials accuse KindHearts for Charitable Humanitarian Development of taking over fundraising for Hamas in the United States after the government forced the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF) to shut down in 2001. That action was upheld by a federal judge in Washington, D.C. HLF and five officials subsequently were indicted and convicted of illegally funneling more than $12 million to Hamas. The freeze of KindHearts bore...

WASHINGTON: A US judge on Wednesday ordered the release of a Kuwaiti held at Guantanamo Bay for nearly eight years, directing "all necessary and appropriate" steps be taken to repatriate him, his lawyer said. Khaled Al-Mutairi, 34, was sent to the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, after being arrested in Pakistan in 2001. He was picked up after traveling to Afghanistan with a charitable organization to build mosques and provide funds for schools and orphanages. US District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly "ordered that the government is directed to take all necessary and appropriate diplomatic steps to facilitate the release...

The potential loss of tens of billions of dollars in damages is not what the Saudis fear most, should the Supreme Court allow this lawsuit to move forward. Way down in the Washington Times' article today about the Obama administration irking 9/11 families by asking the Supreme Court to deny their appeal of a ruling barring a lawsuit against Saudi princes was this gem: "A Justice Department spokesman said the administration held the meetings to hear from family members and declined to discuss details. Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg said that while he sympathized with the families, the State...

Over a year after escaping the first trial because of a declared mistrial the Holy Land Foundation was finally found guilty of 108 counts of funneling money to the Hamas terrorist organization in Palestine.

Five men affiliated with a Missouri Islamic charity, which authorities claim has links to al-Qaida, have been indicted on charges that they illegally sent money to Iraq, federal prosecutors announced Wednesday. The five men associated with the Columbia, Mo.-based Islamic American Relief Agency-USA are charged in a 33-count indictment that alleges they stole government money and falsely represented their fundraising goals to the public. A federal grand jury returned the indictment Tuesday and it was unsealed Wednesday. The men charged are Mubarak Hamed, 50, who served as executive director of the agency; Ali Mohamed Bagegni, 53, a former board member;...

Charity accused of funneling funds to Iraq By Mark Morris McClatchy Newspapers (MCT) KANSAS CITY, Mo. - A defunct charity and five officers and associates have been charged with illegally sending more than $1.4 million to Iraq while Saddam Hussein was in power. The 33-count federal indictment, which was unsealed Wednesday in Kansas City, is the latest assault on a charity that in 2004 was designated a supporter of global terrorists, including Osama bin Laden, al-Qaida and Hamas. At its core, the indictment alleges the Islamic American Relief Agency-USA solicited cash from U.S. contributors and sent it to "persons and...

The Court of Appeals has ordered a freeze on the bank accounts of International Islamic Relief Organization, suspected to be a conduit of funding for Abu Sayyaf and other groups linked to Al Qaida in the country. In a four-page resolution penned by Associate Justice Arcangelita Romilla Lontok, the CA’s Third Division issued the freeze order at the request of the Anti-Money Laundering Council. Covered by the court order is IIRO’s bank account number 0200100100000011145671, with the Bank of Philippine Islands. The court said there is probable cause that the account is being used to bankroll terrorist activities in the...

From the Worcester Country (MA) Telegram & Gazette: Two high-profile lawyers join Islamic charity caseOct 10, 2006First Amendment issues in case will be arguedBy Kevin Keenan TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFFWORCESTER— A pair of nationally recognized lawyers have been retained to argue First Amendment issues in a criminal case involving an Islamic charity and two of its officers who are charged with misrepresenting the charity’s work.Susan R. Estrich, a lawyer, author and media pundit, who managed Michael S. Dukakis’ 1988 presidential campaign, and Harvey A. Silverglate, a noted Cambridge criminal defense lawyer, entered appearances Thursday as counsel for Emadeddin Z. Muntasser...

September 18, 2006 BREAKING: Largest U.S. Islamic Charity Raided by FBI Printer Friendly By Debbie Schlussel I've been writing about LIFE for Relief and Development for years, and I think my columns (especially this one), have finally made a difference. Ditto for my complaints about LIFE to Assistant U.S. Attorney for counterterrorism, Ken Chadwell. Less than half an hour ago, the FBI began raiding LIFE and hauling out documents. Well, it's about time. LIFE--the largest Islamic charity still open for business in America--openly admitted on its 1995-'97 taxes to be a major funder of HAMAS. Headquartered in the Orthodox Jewish...

A congressional committee has included a local Islamic charity in a new round of inquiries into suspected ties between not-for-profit groups and terrorists. The U.S. Senate Finance Committee has requested the financial records of 25 Islamic charities, including the Columbia-based Islamic American Relief Agency, or IARA. In particular, the request included donor lists that are reported to the IRS but protected under a privacy statute. The request comes two years after FBI, Department of the Treasury and other federal agency investigations into charities suspected of having ties to international terrorists. Since 2001, the United States has frozen more than $136...